Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Griddle Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine the warmed milk, melted butter, beaten eggs, salt, and baking powder.
Gradually add flour until you achieve a thin batter consistency.
For rice cakes, stir in the cold boiled rice.
Cook
Heat a griddle and pour batter to form cakes.
Cook until golden brown on both sides.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the cakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cakes rise and turn light.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the batter once it sets on the griddle.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that makes the batter thin and pourable.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and helps the cakes brown on the griddle.
The step that matters
Cook until golden brown on both sides. Cakes need enough heat to set the batter before flipping; flipping too early can tear them. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction on the hot surface, so the griddle should be hot enough to brown them evenly.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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